


hold my hand

by inejghafa



Category: Six of Crows - Fandom, soc
Genre: Fluff, M/M, hand holding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 17:11:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7447285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inejghafa/pseuds/inejghafa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jesper gets really worried for Wylan but Wylan is fine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	hold my hand

It’s been a week since Inej has been taken, and everyone was in a bad mood. They were all anxious and uneasy. Especially Kaz, he was not like himself. Absent, faraway, always wearing his scheming face, spending all his waking hours working on a rescue plan. Jesper could see how worried he was but he knew better than to talk to him, Kaz was still angry about Jesper accidentally selling them out to Pekka Rollins. 

It wasn’t unlike Kaz to keep his plans to himself anyway, but now that Inej was gone it seemed like Kaz thought he couldn’t fully trust anyone else. Since the Slat was unsafe due to the Van Eck situation, they had to find somewhere else to stay. They couldn’t stay in the same place for too long either, Van Eck was a resourceful man and they couldn’t risk being found.   
Tonight they were staying in a decrepit inn, right next to the Fifth Harbour. Not like they ever stayed in anything other than decrepit inns, it was all they could afford and there weren’t many luxurious hotels in the Barrel. It was a cold evening and it was drizzling.

Jesper was standing outside, leaning against a wet brick wall of the inn, looking for a distraction. He rubbed his hands over his shoulders to keep warm. He thought about the familiar feeling of a deck of cards in his hand, but had to stop his thoughts from running in that direction. If he didn’t he would eventually find himself at a gambling den, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself. And it always ended badly. He would just get drunk and more indebted.   
As Jesper stood there, considering his options, a scream broke the silence.

Wylan.

His stomach dropped and he suddenly felt weak at the knees. Scary thoughts came rushing in. Wylan was getting attacked, by his father’s men or by someone else, it didn’t matter who the attacker was. It only mattered that he was in trouble and the thought of something happening to Wylan made Jesper shudder.   
The dread sped up Jesper’s heartbeat to the point where he could hear it pounding in his ears. He rushed inside the inn, running towards the sound. He could feel his hands shake. They already took Inej, what if they were going to take Wylan as well, he couldn’t let it happen. Jesper looked around the hall nervously but there was nothing out of the ordinary. 

“Wylan?” He called out but there was no answer. He heard a quiet whimper on his left but nothing else.   
Saints, what if he’s hurt.   
Jesper tried to calm himself down, he put his palm on a revolver tucked under his belt, just in case. Better safe than sorry, right? 

He walked into a lantern-lit corridor on his left. It was where their rooms were and it was likely where Wylan would be at this time of day. Or rather night. It was quite late so he should be in his room, not wandering around the where suspicious derelicts resided. Even though the corridor was quite dark he could still make out Wylan’s shape. The boy was standing on some sort of a chair, right by his room’s door. Jesper moved closer, confused.  
“Wylan?” he asked quietly “Is everything all right? I thought I heard you —”. He stopped mid sentence, as he noticed a dead rat, pinned to the wooden floor with one of Inej’s knives.   
“Is that a rat, merchling?” Jesper asked amused. Relief flooded him and he ran his shaky hand through his short dark hair. “Saints, you had me scared for a moment there.” He barked a laugh which he tried to disguise as a cough, he failed miserably and it made him laugh even harder. Wylan blushed. He did that a lot. 

“I just don’t like rats,” Wylan finally said.   
“Who does?” Jesper shrugged and his mouth quirked in a small smile.   
The boy stayed quiet so Jesper asked, “Didn’t have rats back home, huh?”  
Wylan moved on the chair nervously, probably wondering whether it was safe to come down. “Not really, no.” He said with a frown on his face. “I’ve seen some in my life though. Not a fan.”   
Jesper smiled at that. “I can see that.”  
He could see that Wylan was still a little shaken up so he decided to calm him down. The only way he knew how.  
“Hey,” Jesper said, and the boy finally looked up from the dead animal. “Stop with that frown, you’re cuter when you smile.” He winked and Wylan blushed again. It warmed Jesper’s heart a little. It always did.   
“I just —” Wylan started “Are you sure it’s dead? I mean —”   
It took a lot of self control to stop a smile from spreading across his face again, he went for a serious look. 

“It’s dead. There aren’t many things that can survive a knife to the brain.” He held out a hand for Wylan to take. “Come on now, let’s get you something to drink, you’re shaking.”  
Wylan kept glancing toward the dead rat and Jesper let out an exaggerated sigh. The merchling finally took his hand, and when he did a shiver went down Jesper’s spine. He tried to suppress it but to no avail. He looked up and their eyes met.   
“Huh,” Wylan said, a slow smile crept across his lips but he didn’t say anything else. He stepped down from the chair. There was no reason for them to still be holding hands but neither of them let go. Jesper’s breathing was shallow and he was very aware of Wylan’s hand in his own.

They were standing like that, just looking at each other, when a loud rattle of metal utensils broke the silence. Wylan jumped, startled, and let go of Jesper’s hand. A drunk man stumbled into the corridor, knocking over some plates and bowls, patting his pockets, probably looking for his key. When he disappeared into his room, Jesper turned back to Wylan.   
“So,” he said grinning.   
“So,” Wylan replied.   
“We better clean this up,” Jesper said. Wylan looked a little uncertain so he added, “You take care of the knife, I’ll take care of the rest.”   
“Thanks,” said Wylan.   
“Yeah, no problem merchling,” Jesper said and winked. He crouched beside the dead animal, pulled the knife out and handed it to the boy.   
Their fingers brushed for a second, “I’ll get to it then,” Wylan said, probably blushing.   
“Yeah,” Jesper replied and focused on the task, with a smile on his face.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!


End file.
